Sparkling Sand
by Maymist
Summary: What would happen if Sakura already knew Gaara before she saw him in the Chunin exams? Read to find out GaarSaku and some SasuSaku
1. Chapter 1

There a little boy sat on a swing, clutching onto the ropes tightly, fighting the pain that was making his soul suffer of agony, and he stared down at his beloved teddy bear which was on his lap.

"You seem like the only one who doesn't hate me..." he whispered to the bear and continued as a tear slid down his cheek, "Too bad your not real..."

He gulped a bit and clenched his teeth as he silently sobbed with his trembling eyes shut tight. The red haired boy then stared at the empty swing besides him and sniffed.

"What's the point of my existence, if everyone hates me?" he asked himself, his voice quiet and he sniffed.

Little did he know, a little girl with short pink hair was watching him curiously from behind a tree and felt sadden at seeing him sob. Earlier she saw the boy trying to play with other children; however, they fled from him instantly in fear.

She timidly walked towards him and sat on the swing besides him.

His eyes widen in absolute shock as she sat down besides him and his mouth hung open.

She looked at him and flashed him a shy smile. "I saw when those kids ran from you. They do the same to me back home. No one ever wants to play with me..." she explained, her voice filled with sadness and she looked down towards the ground.

He blinked, slightly confused, and asked, "But why?"

Looking at the boy, her emerald eyes trembled as she removed her bangs that covered the top of her head, and pointed to her forehead. "It's because I have a huge forehead. See?" she told him while frowning and pointed to her forehead.

"I don't see it..." he responded quietly as he was looking intently at her forehead.

Her eyes widened. "R-Really?" she stuttered and her cheeks turned the color of strawberries.

He flashed her a tiny grin and nodded.

As her entire body trembled, tears of joy streamed down her face, and she smile at him.

"T-Thank you," she stuttered and then wiped away her tears.

"So what's your name? I'm Haruno Sakura," she stated with a grin and closed her eyes.

"Gaara..." he mumbled shyly and looked towards the ground, his cheeks turning pink.

"That's a nice name," Sakura commented and smiled.

"Thanks..." Gaara mumbled and continued, "I've never seen you around here in the village. Are you new here?"

"No, I live in Konoha. I'm here on a field trip with my class but I got separated from my group..." Sakura clarified.

"Sakura!" a voice called from the distance.

Both children turned around to see who was speaking and it was one Sakura's teachers.

Sakura turned to Gaara and frowned. "I guess I have to go now..."

"Will I ever see you again?" he asked, his voice full of worry.

Closing her emerald eyes, she gave him a reassuring smile, and told him, "We will. I promise."

He returned the smile as the wind blew through their hair and both of their cheeks flushed of the color of pink.

"Bye!"

A few years later...

"Sasuke-Kun! Want to go out on a date?" Sakura asked her current teammate, Uchia Sasuke.

"Get lost. Why don't you do something useful for once? Even Naruto is more useful than you," Sasuke responsed coldy and walked away.

Sakura cried fake tears and started stroking her long pink hair. 'Its true... I am pretty useless... How will I ever survive the Chunin exams?' she thought to herself and sighed.

She started walking along this path and the only thing surrouding her was a wooden fence.

'Now that I think about it, I lecture Naruto all of the time, but he does so much more than me... And Sasuke acts like he hates me all of the time but I claim I'm in love with him, but am I in love with him for real?' Sakura thought to herself and frowned as she continued to walk.

As she turned the corner, she paused, and widened her emerald eyes in shock. Her mouth hung open and her cheeks instantly turned pink.

"Gaara..." she whispered to herself as she saw Gaara standing behind her other teammate, Uzumaki Naruto. She then noticed Sasuke sitting on a tree branch, looking down at Gaara with an intense stare.

Gaara then noticed Sakura's prescene. "Sakura..."

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as he thought, 'she knows this guy?'

Author Note: This idea has been in my mind forever. Yeah, I'm re-winding this fic to be started around the chunin exams. Well, I hope you liked this.

Reviews really mean the world to me and I greatly appreciate them, so please review, thank you :)

Ill update when I can, thank you for reading :)


	2. Chapter 2

"It's been awhile, Sakura..." Gaara stated calmly and crossed his arms.

Both Naruto and Sasuke exchanged glances and then both glanced at Sakura.

Naruto immediately rushed up to Sakura and whispered into her ear, "You really know this creep, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's right eyebrow twitched as anger consumed her and she bit her lip. "Shut up, you idiot! He's not a creep! And yes, I know him," she whispered bitterly to her goofy teammate.

Sasuke jumped down from the tree and walked up to Sakura as well. "How do you know him?" Sasuke demanded, his voice still quiet and cool.

"Yeah! Did you guys date or something, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked the pink haired girl innocently.

Sakura's face flushed red of embarrassment and she hit Naruto on the head. "Ow!" he groaned in pain and put a hand on his head.

"S-Shut up! Or I'll hit you again!" Sakura warned, clenching her right fist as her cheeks were still red.

"You know... I'm still here..." Gaara mumbled quietly as his arms remained crossed and everyone returned their attention back to the sand ninja.

"Sorry..." Sakura apologized and laughed nervously.

"You grew your hair long..." Gaara observed and stared intently at Sakura.

Sakura blinked, puzzled, and then another nervous laugh escaped from her mouth as she felt her cheeks turning the color of crimson once again. "Haha, yeah, I guess I did grow it out..." Sakura laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of her head.

'Is this really Gaara? He seems so...different.' Sakura thought and gulped.

Again, both Naruto and Sasuke exchanged confused glances and Gaara replied, "Well, I'll see you at the exams, Sakura..." and he turned to Sasuke and said, "I'll be looking forward to see you too, Sasuke."

"Likewise," Sasuke smirked.

"What about me?" Naruto whined.

"I could care less," Gaara responded coldy in a monotone tone and the sand ninja walked away from Team 7.

A few hours later...

After Sakura's Sensei, Hatake Kakashi, lectured Team 7 about the upcoming chunin exams, Sakura returned to her home and was now sitting on her balcony while hugging her legs as she looked up towards the bright blue sky.

She frowned as she thought, 'Chunin exams... Am I really ready for it? I'll probably just make a fool of myself. I'm not strong enough yet for something so dangerous but then again I want to be with Sasuke-kun and impress him...'

Sakura sighed and a frown formed on her lips.

"Sakura," a quiet voice called from below.

She turned around and looked down to see Gaara standing in front of her house.

Her cheeks instantly turned pink as she saw him and wondered, 'why do I always feel like this whenever I see him?'

"Y-Yes?" Sakura stuttered timidly.

"Want to go for a walk?" he asked nonchalanty.

"S-Sure," Sakura blushed.

A few minutes later...

Both Sakura and Gaara had walked to a park and were now currently sitting besides each other on swings. At the park it seemed rather foggy and they were the only ones there. They sat there in silence for a moment and Gaara finally looked at Sakura with his expressionless face.

"Did you need to talk to me about something, Gaara-kun?" Sakura questioned innocently.

"You said we would meet again and you were right..." he told her quietly and continued, "but you never once visited my village again and I was so alone... We met again only because the exams are being held in your village..."

Her eyes trembled. "W-What are you saying?"

"You probably would never visit me again, would you? You probably forgot about me after all of this time..."

"Of course not! I'm not strong enough to leave the village by myself yet and I could never forget about you, Gaara!" Sakura reassured him and clenched her right fist.

"I find that hard to believe..." Gaara replied quietly, avoiding eye contact, and looked down towards the ground.

"Gaara... You seem so different. What happened?" Sakura asked him in concern.

"It doesn't matter. Anyways... Sakura, be careful in the exams," he told her and stood up.

He looked back at her and the wind blew through their hair. Sakura's tiny mouth was open slightly while her cheeks turned pink as her eyes started to tremble once she locked eyes with Gaara.

'Why am I blushing? Sakura, you idiot, you like Sasuke remember!' Inner Sakura shouted from within Sakura's mind.

"Oh yeah... Don't make me kill you," Gaara told her with no emotion.

Sakura started to twitch. 'How charming...'

The next day...

It was early in the morning and was also the day of the chunin exams.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto were all waiting for Sakura outside by where the chunin exams were taking place.

As Sakura was walking, she thought with a frown, 'Today is the day. Maybe I should stick to focusing more on the exams instead of Sasuke and maybe I should be nicer to Naruto too... Sigh, which might be hard, considering how much of an idiot he can be.'

Within a few minutes, Sakura finally met up with her team.

"Sakura your late! Happy you're here though!"Naruto exclaimed cheerfully and let out a chuckle.

Sakura let out a fake laugh. "Yeah, sorry guys..."

"Glad you made it, Sakura," Kakashi told her and smiled with his eyes closed.

"Yeah, I'm glad too..." Sakura replied shyly and faked a smile.

Sasuke grew suspcious as he thought, 'whats up with her?'

They all abruptly heard footsteps from behind and everyone turned around to see that Gaara was approaching them.

"Hey, who's that?" Kakashi whispered to Naruto and Gaara walked towards Sakura.

"Hello Sakura..." he greeted the pink haired ninja and smiled slightly.

Sakura felt her cheeks turn pink once again and she frowned as her eyes widened.

'Whats wrong with me?'

Author Note: Yes! I'm done with this chapter! I hope you guys liked it and thank you for reading!

Tell me what you guys thought by reviewing please :) and thank you to those who reviewed last time, it means so much to me! Thank you! I'll update when I can! :) thank you!


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